The Biography of Muh Ammad: The Issue of the Sources

Beschreibung

Beschreibung

This book deals with the controversial value of the sources on which the biography of Muhammad, the founder of Islam, is based. Discussions on this topic have been going on for more than a century but it has become especially debated during the last two decades.This volume contains ten articles which are the outcome of an international colloquium on the issue. Part one of the book examines the development of the Muslim tradition concerning the life of Muhammad while the other part focuses on the historical reliability of the source material.The volume reflects not only the most recent methodological developments in the study of the life of Muhammad but also the improvement of its material-basis due to sources which have only recently become available or which have been neglected.

Portrait

Harald Motzki, Ph.D. (1978) in Islamic Studies, University of Bonn, habilitation (1989), University of Hamburg, is Associate Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of Nijmegen (the Netherlands). He has published extensively on Islamic social, legal and religious history.

Pressestimmen

'"An important contribution to the ongoing debate over the quest for the historical Muhammad. Highly recommended to all college and university libraries as well as those public libraries collecting in the history of religion"' M. Swartz, "Choice", October 2000. '"These ten essays, each authored by an established expert in the field, represent original research based on the Arabic sources and are painstakingly detailed and meticulous Highly recommended to all college and university libraries."' "Choice", 2000. '"This is an important book and deserves careful reading and assessment by scholars of early Islam "' David Waines, "Journal of Semitic Studies". '" editor Motzki and his fellow contributors have charted a trajectory for future scholarly inquiry that promises to be highly rewarding".' Asma Afsaruddin, "Journal of American Oriental Society", 2001.